Mental Health for Entrepreneurs and Small Businesses
Running a business is stressful, and small teams rarely have an HR department to lean on. Here are the free resources from Mind and others, and practical steps founders can take for themselves and their staff.
Starting and running a business is stressful. You carry the financial risk, the hours are long and there is often nobody senior to share problems with. In small teams there is usually no HR department either, so mental health can be easy to overlook until something goes wrong. The good news is that there is good, free help available, and a few simple habits make a real difference.
How common is it?
Surveys of small business owners and the self-employed regularly find high levels of stress, anxiety and low mood. One survey of more than 600 small business owners found that one in five rated their mental wellbeing as bad or very bad. When Mind researched smaller workplaces, it found that only 23% of employees in small organisations felt comfortable telling someone at work about poor mental health.
Free training from Mind
In 2019 the mental health charity Mind launched Mental Health for Small Workplaces, free online training developed with the Federation of Small Businesses and funded by The Royal Foundation. It has three short modules, each taking about 20 minutes:
- Building your awareness: what mental health is, and spotting the signs that someone is struggling.
- Looking after yourself: practical ways to manage your own wellbeing.
- Supporting each other: how to start a conversation and support a colleague.
Faye McGuinness, who led Mind's workplace wellbeing programmes at the time, said that in a small workplace people are your most valuable asset, and that getting started is easier than you might think.
The training is part of Mental Health at Work, a free website run by Mind that gathers resources for employers and employees, including toolkits aimed at the self-employed and small business owners. Mind also publishes a guide for small businesses with the Federation of Small Businesses.
Practical steps for founders
- Look after yourself first. Sleep, exercise and time away from the business are not luxuries. A burnt-out founder makes poor decisions.
- Plan realistically. Many deadlines are stressful because the plan was too optimistic. Our article on time management and Hofstadter's law explains why things always take longer than expected.
- Watch your cash. Money worries are one of the biggest sources of stress. A simple financial model shows problems coming early, while there is still time to act.
- Find people to talk to. A mentor, other founders or a peer group can share the load. You don't have to have all the answers.
- Make it normal in your team. Ask how people are, mean it, and make it clear that saying "I'm struggling" will be met with support.
- Agree simple adjustments. Flexible hours, a quieter workload for a while or time off for appointments cost little and can keep a valued person in work.
If you need help now
If you are struggling, talk to your GP. In the UK and Ireland you can call Samaritans free, day or night, on 116 123. Mind's website has information about getting support and local services.
For more on the human side of running a business, read your startup is a boat and second career, second chance.
Sources
Happiful, "Free online mental health training launched for small businesses", April 2019. Mind, Workplace wellbeing. SME Today, "Your first stop for better mental health at work". Startups Magazine, on Mental Health at Work and Simply Business.
